Identification document and material for its manufacture



Oct. 1970 A. A. WEITZBERG ETAL 3,533,176

IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT AND MATERIAL FOR ITS MANUFACTURE Filed June 7, 1968 Fig.1

//VVEA/TOR5 ALEX A; TER WE/TZBERG AM.) L/ms OLOFW/LHELM Hfic sTM/ I United States Patent "ice 3,533,176 IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT AND MATERIAL FOR ITS MANUFACTURE Alex Alter Weitzberg and Lars Olof Wilhelm Htigstriim,

Strangnas, Sweden, assignors to Aktiebolaget Ceaverken, Svenskt Fotografiskt Papper och Film, Strangnas, Sweden, a company of Sweden Filed June 7, 1968, Ser. No. 735,457 Claims priority, application Sweden, June 9, 1967, 8,145/ 67 Int. Cl. G09f 3/02 US. Cl. 402.2 14 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to an identification document, which is quite proof against forgery, and more particular such a document comprising a base card with a photographic layer fastened thereto and comprising photographic reproductions, on the one hand, of a person and, on the other hand, of particulars about the person.

Known documents of this kind are often enclosed in plastic material attached in the form of layers on both sides of the card so as to form a laminated product. An impression, e.g. a stamp, may also have been applied to the parts of the photography. In one case the document consists of two card portions enclosed in a common plastic envelope. It has been found, however, that known documents of this kind can be easily counterfeit because the layers of the laminated product can be separated without great ditficulty and the photographic portion so uncovered be counterfeited by exchanging, for instance, the picture of the person by a false one, whereupon the new combination can be laminated with plastic layers well concealing the exchange, even a joint obtained in case the picture of the person has been cut out. It has also been suggested for making an identification card forgery-proof to provide it with a radioactive substance distributed in the card in a given pattern (US. patent specification No. 2,773,196) or with magnetic material (US. patent specification No. 3,015,087). Although the base card of such an identification document is given a specific marking the document may be counterfeited by altering critical parts of the identification means, as by exchanging a photograph or changing the text by erasing.

It is the object of the invention to produce a fool-proof identification document, and for that purpose to use a plurality of securing means against forgery, some of which may be known in the art per se, and combine them in such a way as to make the document foolproof. For that purpose it is an object to prepare the base card as to make it necessary for the forger to use for the false document the very card he is going to counterfeit.

For obtaining these and other objects that will be evident from the following description the identification document of the invention comprises in combination a base card, a photographic layer inseparably attached to the upper side of said card and containing a photographic 3,533,176 Patented Oct. 13, 1970 reproduction comprising a picture section showing the picture of a person and a text section accounting for particulars or data about said person, at least the portion of said photographic layer critical for the identification and the area of said base card supporting said portion of the photographic layer being each continuous, i.e. without any joints, said base card containing a specific inherent marking extending over both of the picture and text sections, and a transparent coating on top of and inseparably adhering to at least said photographic layer, and preferably also to the rear side of the card. The said particulars or data usually comprise the signature of the person illustrated, preferably applied to a hatched area on the photographic layer.

It is usually advantageous to use a composite base card composed of one rear and one intermediate layer to which latter said photographic layer is inseparably attached, at least one of said rear and intermediate layers containing said specific marking. The possibilities of forgery are minimized by providing an intermediate layer between the base card and the photographic layer, in particular if it is inseparably fastened to at least the latter one. The intermediate layer may be such a barytes-containing layer as commonly used in photographic materials, but, as a principle, it may be of arbitrary kind. It should preferably be capable of receiving a signal substance which shall be more closely described hereinbelow. It may be a layer of fibre material felted together with the proper card material.

The base card shall be made of sheet material capable of inseparably carrying a photographic layer, obtained from a photographic emulsion, and. it may advantageously be made of fibrous material, such as paper or fine textile fabric, or of transparent or opaque plastic material, preferably of polyester type or of regenerated cellulose, such as nitrocellulose and acetate cellulose.

The specific marking is important for making the card itself attractive or indispensable to the counterfeiter and it should therefore preferably, but not necessarily, comprise a water-marking, preferably of the kind where some parts are light and other parts dark (hell-dunkel). In addition, or instead, the specific marking may consist of impregnation, impression or inclusion of radioactive and/ or fluorescent signal substances, which may be applied in a given pattern.

A particularly valuable protection against counterfeiting is obtained in case the base card or the intermediate layer or both separately contains a signal substance which inherently or only after a certain irradiation emits a characteristic radiation which is easily detectable, preferably visible to the naked eye, without injury to the document, for instance a substance shining with a given colour at ultra-violet irradiation. The controller of the authenticity of the document may have a detecting apparatus at hand and if proper signal substance is chosen this apparatus may be relatively simple and in any case easy to handle. The substance may be fluorescent and thus be activated by daylight so that the fluorescence can be observed without a special apparatus in a dark or shady place. Higher degree of security is obtained if the controller has an ultra-violet radiator, particularly if the substance reacts solely to the radiation from the radiator but not for other radiations, e.g. the sunlight. The substance may be radioactive, in which case the detector is chosen so as to react to the specific radiation from the substance.

In a composite card the two layers may have different signal substances. Thus the rear and intermediate layers may contain different fluorescent substances which emit, as by irradiation, light of different colours, which can easily be detected by inspection of the card from either side.

As stated above it is important that the base card as well as the photographic layer is unitary, i.e. they shall each be continuous and have no joints. However, an identification document may be made such that the card itself and/or one or more of its coating layers may be jointed, provided that the joint does not pass between the portions of the person and the particulars about him in the photograph but crosses one or both thereof so that an unjointed continuous portion is available which is sufficient for the identification and is per se consistent with the purport of the invention.

However, the features of unitarity and specific marking are necessary but not sufficient. The photographic layer must be secured against forgery by a transparent security coating or protective layer which inseparably adheres to the photographic layer, e.g. has partly penetrated into the latter. The protective layer suitably consists of a lacquer, resin, or plastic deposited from a solution by evaporation.

In view of the fact that such protective layers must be applied to the finished card in the form of a solution or the like, whose solvent is evaporated and forms a deposite of the proper layer material, you cannot fail to obtain a product which would reveal a possible joint in the card, even by touching with the finger. Furthermore, the protective layer is so anchored or secured to the card that it cannot be removed without deterioration of the card or the photography, which is possible with comomn laminated material.

This applies even more to the preferred embodiment of the invention in which the transparent coating consists of a hardenable resin or plastic in its hardened state, such as epoxi-resin. Moreover, such a coating cannot be removed without destroying the photographic layer, which can then not be restored.

The forgery proofness of the identification document will be considerably improved by making the transparent coating thin, preferably not substantially thicker than the photographic layer.

A further increased fool-proofness is obtained if in the document at least its photographic layer side is provided with at least one additional print of characteristic pattern covered by said transparent layer and extending over boh of said picture and text sections of the photographic layer, said print consisting, if desired, of fine lines as in bank notes. In this embodiment the document may also be proof against photographic reproduction by executing one or more of the additional prints in colours different from that of the text of particulars, preferably by using combinations, of different colours to eliminate by optical filters when the document is photographed. Such a combination may be, for instance, dark brown, light gray and another colour, e.g. red or green. If a document so printed is photographed, the photograph will not be a true copy of the original but have more or less faded additional print marks and it will be hardly be possible to replace the original additional prints with fresh prints that would eliminate the faded print marks and accurately simulate the original ones.

The photographic layer and/ or the rear side of the base card may have some text or marks printed thereto so as partly to penetrate into the support, which marking may be water soluble, or soluble in a solvent for the lacquer, resin, or plastic. Said print shall penetrate into the support in order that it shall not be removable without injuring of the support. If it is soluble in said solvent it will be damaged, removed or fled out, if one tries to remove the protective layer, and such a document could not very well be restored to a shape which would be taken as the original.

Finally, a still further security means is obtained if the document is provided with an impression Stamp extending over both of said picture and text sections and penetrating into said base card, photographic layer and coating, which have thereby become crushed or destroyed.

Naturally the document according to the embodiment described above may be wholely or partly coated with ordinary plastic layers (laminated).

It will be obvious from the foregoing description that the combination of the various securing means with a transparent coating inseparably adhering to the photographic layer of the identification document will make the latter practically absolutely foolproof.

The invention will now be described with reference to an embodiment illustrated in the attached drawing, but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto.

In the drawing FIG. 1 shows an identification card seen from above, and FIG. 2 shows the card according to FIG. 1 with the successive layers partly removed so as to illustrate each layer in an overlapping manner.

The basic card comprises a sheet of paper 1, which may be of a thickness corresponding to about g. per sqm. This paper includes a light-dark water marking 2 and an additional marking 3 which may be radioactive or fluorescent. On top of and intimately secured to paper 1 is a barytes layer 6 containing markings 7 which may be radioactive or fluorescent. Inseparably attached to this layer is the photographic emulsion layer 10 carrying the photographic reproduction of a person and the data about him. The uppermost layer 12' is the transparent coating which effectively seals the identification card. It is preferably made of a hardenable plastic material so that it can not be removed by moderate heating or solvent without destroying the underlying photographic layer.

As best seen in FIG. 1 the photographic layer 10 comprises a picture 15 of a person and a section containing particulars 16 and a hatched area 17 with a signature. An impression stamp 21 is placed so as to cover parts of the sections of picture and text as well as of the signature. The photographic layer has also an additional print 23 in the form of thin wave lines which may be carried out in different colours and possibly be more or less soluble in water or organic solvents.

The water marking is preferably in the form of a plurality of individual water marks about 2 cm. broad and distributed with an interspace of about 0.5-1 cm. Additional prints 23 may also be applied to the rear side of the card and a coating corresponding to coating 12 may also be applied to the rear side, which may, if desired, be provided with a thicker plastic coating as for producing a stiffer card.

What we claim is:

1. An identification document comprising in combination a base card, a photographic layer inseparably attached to the upper side of said card and containing a photographic reproduction comprising a picture section showing a picture of a person and a text section accounting for particulars or data about said person, at least the portion of said photographic layer critical for the identification and the area of said base card supporting said portion of the photographic layer being each continuous, said base card containing a specific inherent marking extending over both the picture and the text sections, and an uppermost coating of a transparent material overlying said photographic layer and penetrating into and inseparably adhering to at least said photographic layer.

2. A document as claimed in claim 1 in which said base card consists of one rear layer and one intermediate layer to which latter said photographic layer is inseparably attached, at least one of said rear and intermediate layers containing said specific marking.

3. A document as claimed in claim 1, in which said base card is made of a sheet material of the class consisting of fibrous material, transparent plastic material, and opaque material.

4. A document as claimed in claim 1, in which said marking is at least one of group consisting of water-marking, such as light and dark (hell-dunkel) marking, radioactive marking and fluorescent marking.

5. A document as claimed in claim 1, in which said transparent coating consists of material selected from the class consisting of lacquers, natural and artificial resins, and plastic materials.

6. A document as claimed in claim 5, in which said transparent coating consi;ts of a hardenable resin or plas tic in its hardened state, such as epoxi-resin.

7. A document as claimed in claim 1 in which the maximum thickness of said transparent coating is substantially not greater than the thickness of said photographic layer.

-8. A document as claimed in claim 1 in which at least its photographic layer side is provided with at least one additional print of characteristic pattern covered by said transparent layer and extending over both of said picture and text sections of the photographic layer, said print consisting, if desired, of fine lines as in bank notes.

9. A document as claimed in claim 8, in which at least one of said additional prints has a colour different from that of said text of particulars.

10. A document as claimed in claim 8, in which at least its photographic layer side is provided 'With a plurality of sets of additional prints of characteristic patterns, each set of prints having a colour different from the others, preferably chosen amongst the colours dark brown, light grey and another colour, e.g. red or green.

11. A document as claimed in claim 1 provided with an impression stamp extending over both of said picture and text sections and penetrating into said base card, photographic layer and coating.

12. Photographic paper suitable for the identification document of claim 1, comprising a continuous base card, and a continuous photographic emulsion layer inseparably attached to the upper side thereof, said base card comprising a paper with a specific inherent marking extending over the major portion thereof and comprising at least water marking, preferably of the: light-dark type substantially evenly distributed over the card.

13. Paper as claimed in claim 12 in which said specific marking comprises a substance emitting radiation inherently, as radioactive substances, or by irradiation, as fluorescent substances.

14. Paper as claimed in claim 12, in which said base card consists of a rear sheet of paper and an intermediate layer of barytes, said sheet and said layer containing different, specific inherent markings.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,069,793 12/1962 Francescon 402.2 3,152,901 10/1964 Johnson 40-2.2 3,221,428 12/ 1965 Fischler et al 40-22 3,245,697 4/1966 Nugent 402.2 3,279,826 10/196'6 Rudersha'usen 402.2 X 3,313,052 4/1967 Malsler 402.2 3,402,488 9/ 1968 Lavitt 40-2.2

EUGENE R. CAPO'ZIO, Primary Examiner W. J. CONTRERAS, Assistant Examiner 

